


Neal on His Working Relationship With Peter Burke

by Estel



Category: White Collar
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-14
Updated: 2012-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:00:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estel/pseuds/Estel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal looks back somewhat bitterly on his relationship thus far with Peter and his definitions of people and relationships.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neal on His Working Relationship With Peter Burke

Smile at your enemies.

Being angry has a time and a place, but like lying and love, anger has its own tell. It isn’t worth it to gnash your teeth and growl if you can turn your lips up in a smile.

That way they never see you coming.

Peter and I have what I like to think of as a working relationship. Not your average working relationship, however. You have to understand what I think of as work. Work isn’t just what I do for the FBI or a good hustle. Anytime I have to save face in front of someone, I consider it work and the amount I have to do that around someone denotes the type of relationship.

For example, if I were hypothetically trying to initiate contact with a mark, I’m not going to tip them my cards in any situation. But for someone like Alex, who I’ve known for some time, I can let loose most of the time, except when it comes to information about a job or anything I may value, but I can be angry with her. Now a mark is a mark, but Alex, who I still play it close to the chest sometimes with, is a friend.

With Peter, I can be myself, but only until it comes to my personal history or relationships. If I let any of that go, I could wind up in prison for life or lose any future leverage I may have.

The worst part of our working relationship is that sometimes I can’t help but look at him, with his perfect wife and his perfect dog in their perfect home, and I see the man that ruined my life, and possibly any future I may have ever had with the woman I love.

Loved.

Sometimes I just hate him.

But I just smile.


End file.
